Statute for a European cooperative society: involvement of employees

The committee adopted the report by Pronsias DE ROSSA (PES, IRL) amending the draft Council directive under the consultation procedure (renewed consultation). The committee reiterated Parliament's previously-stated priorities regarding employee involvement in the context of the European Company Statute and also added several new elements. The main amendments were as follows: - Article 137 of the EC Treaty must be deemed to be the correct - and specific - legal basis rather than Article 308; - the right to negotiations on worker participation should not be limited to the period in which an SCE is being created. Where there are substantial structural changes (e.g. mergers or the integration of other undertakings and companies), it should be possible to re-open negotiations; - the definition of "participation" was amended to reflect the fact that participation is an ongoing task and not just a one-off right to recommend, nominate and/or reject representatives in the administrative or supervisory boards; - worker representatives on administrative/supervisory boards should be elected/appointed according to national law governing the election or appointment of employees to the bodies of national cooperatives; - the Member States should ensure that the methods used to nominate, appoint or elect employee representatives promote gender balance; - corporate social responsibility should be included among the subjects to be discussed at annual meetings between management and employee representatives; - the clause allowing Member States an opt-out from employee participation where an SCE is established through the merger of two cooperatives should be deleted. �